Categories
The exponential growth in packet traffic puts intense cost and capacity pressure on telecom networks since the nature of this traffic is such that the peak data rates are often an order of magnitude higher than the average data rate. The consequent demands on network scalability and stringent quality of service requirements (esp. for video applications) cannot be economically handled by existing TDM transport equipment designed to handle deterministic circuit and voice traffic. Moreover, as the amount of traffic increases in today’s networks, there is a need to handle traffic at larger granularities.
The transport version of IP/MPLS, a packet switching technology widely used in Core IP networks, has emerged as the most popular option for packet transport in Metro and Aggregation networks. MPLS-TP is an enhanced profile of IP/MPLS designed to meet transport network operational requirements. It borrows critical elements from IP/MPLS such as its forwarding mechanisms, while including additional functionality such as performance monitoring, OAM, Tandem Connection Monitoring (TCM) and protection switching. MPLS-TP reduces dependency on “routable” IP protocols thus lowering vulnerability to network layer cyberattacks, provides superior connection management capabilities with pro-active and reactive fault management and performance monitoring, and simplifies service provisioning via centralized Network Management System (NMS) as in traditional voice-centric networks.
Tejas implementation of MPLS-TP technology in its converged packet optical (CPO) and packet transport networking (PTN) products offers several benefits to telecom service providers: